Krallice "Demonic Wealth" LP

One heavily affected by Covid-related lockdowns, to the point where this is a real step away from the technical death metal-laced formula that they have been playing recently. With only Colin Marston having studio access, the other members were forced to resort to recording their contributions as best they could, in vocalist Mick Barr's car, on a phone for drummer Lev Weinstein. And as a result Demonic Wealth is their most purely black metal album in a few years, in both sound and aesthetics, with pleasingly low-fi guitars and drums, and often dominated by atmospheric synths. This being Krallice, however, there's plenty of experimental technicality at play still, especially in the guitar riffs, which can go from twisted dissonance to textural backdrops to groovy chugging on the same song, such as Mass for the Strangled's diverse workout. The variety on show throughout the album is wide, starting with the demented psychedelic thrashing of Folds of Plasma complete with Slayer-gone-avant-garde soloing, and one of the more technical pieces on the album especially due to the frantic drumming. This leads to the near-Burzumic atmospheric piece Dilution, still with blackened drums and vocals but dominated by keyboards and snarls, the guitars taking a back seat. And the use of keyboards throughout the album is far wider than you'd have thought from Krallice, shifting towards more melancholic and even epic tones on Still and Sapphire, and closer to ambient sludge on the noisier Disgust Patterns.